Your Way Or Mine
by CorruptCreature
Summary: Katara and Zuko are forced to work together. Feelings forced to surface and feelings neither knew they had... at least not for each other. Zutara, oneshot, very minor Zutoph. R&R is appreciated but not mandatory and the rating is for brief language.


Your Way or Mine

Chapter 1

Tough Love

Katara couldn't believe out of all the experienced benders in the group, Zuko went with her to help her gather firewood and protect her if the need arose. 'Even Toph would've been a better choice.' She thought bitterly. Zuko in her opinion wasn't even a master firebender. Sokka or Aang would've been the best choice by far.

"Katara." Zuko's voice came into her head. Which snapped her back to reality.

"What?" Zuko heard the disdainful annoyance in her voice, a special reminder of where he was on the trust meter. He had wanted to get to know her better and so he thought this would be the perfect opportunity, maybe even they could be friends after that. Unfortunately it wasn't going as well as he'd hoped.

"I found some." Zuko stated blankly, not really knowing what to say.

"Really?" The waterbender began sarcastically. "Why is it all wet?" He was the reason everything fell apart; he instigated everything that happened to them since the day his ship first touched the icy plateau that she and her brother called home.

"I figured it would burn slower and we'd get better smoke out of it for the moose lion meat to cook over. We're going to be eating for a week or so on what Sokka catches anyway." Zuko looked for some approval from Katara's face. A smirk was all he could see.

"When did your uncle teach you how to cook?" Katara asked simply, not really caring about the answer but instead kneeling down to pick up some more wood she had spotted.

"No, I used to spend some of my spare time in the kitchen, the head chef taught me a few things including wood fire cooking." Zuko had a touch of nostalgia in his voice. This annoyed Katara a little considering that she had only gathered kindling and not really found any logs. Zuko saw Katara trying to hold onto her stack of wood with the very edge of her chin.

"Can I help you with some of that?" Zuko asked as she had tripped almost fallen over a tree root and taken the stack with her to the ground.

"No, you do the same as me and we'll only have to make one trip if you gather just logs." Katara seemed to be fixed on her decision as she walked a little faster ahead of Zuko.

"Katara let me help, that's all. Just to take some of the weight off." Zuko outstretched his arms. "Please." Katara just shied away from him just for second before rushing past him as she spoke broodingly. "We should keep moving."

In that moment alone, Katara seemed almost like his sister, all of the determination and strength combined with the disgust of thinking someone could help her. Whether this attitude was special just for him was no mystery. They walked for around ten minutes, Zuko had gotten lucky and had found five logs, and half of a sixth one that was obviously somewhat rotten.

But Zuko figured Aang could use it in his firebending training, Aang was now creating his own bending exercises for each respective element. Something that somewhat reminded him of his uncle.

"I didn't mean to get so pushy back there, I just wanted to help and… I'd like to apologize." Zuko called to her, Katara had pushed on fifteen feet in front of her. She wanted nothing to do with him after how he demeaned her like he did.

"How well do you know Aang and Toph?" She asked simply as she walked briskly to him, kicking yet another log to his feet.

"Pretty well I guess, I train with Aang every sunrise… and Toph has spent more time with me than anyone else in the past week."

"Do you know them well enough to adopt their strength of character?" Katara asked piercingly, staring straight into his eyes.

He thought for a moment. "Not as well as you." He responded.

"Then why?" Katara was now quivering with anger. "Why after all the time I've spent around them, do you even think that I might not be able to carry a stack of kindling?"

"Besides the fact that you just tripped?" Zuko shot back. "You also have to know when to accept help or quit." At this she threw a stick at him, which hit him in the shoulder, he blocked a couple more that Katara threw simply out of frustration in light of his apparent calmness.

"Now your just being childish Katara." He told her calmly as the hail of sticks came faster, but now faster than the firebender could redirect and block them and a couple now hit him in the forehead.

"What's the matter Prince Zuko, too tough for you?" She laughed triumphantly. "Maybe you should quit while you still can." As though the following sentence gave her an extra boost in will and strength she let the two last stick fly with all her anger and energy "Save yourself the trouble of having to tend to a scratch or two later."

A small wall of fire then charred the remaining sticks heading for the Prince. "You want to fight me?" He stepped through the wall of ash and ciders left by his fire shield and took his favored firebending stance, the look on his face was pure determination.

"I was forced fight through everything, no matter how tough it got." Zuko told her as he saw a water whip come in slow motion which he calmly blocked with his forearm, breathing easy through each successive one that.

"Yeah so did I, its called survival." Katara bended her whole canteen and sent Zuko flying backwards, with only a tree to stop him. He only had a moment to react; so within the time it took Katara to summon up the water on the ground Zuko had sidestepped the water whip that came from behind while still moving toward her. Before she knew it they were face to face and Zuko had grabbed her wrists, not with a tight grip but positioned them towards her hips with enough leverage that she fought in futility against him. She was defeated… but she was made uneasy by the fact that Zuko had locked eyes with her for the past two minutes and not said a word. "You can let me go now." She smiled cynically, thinking 'What a dick, he's doing this still just to prove his point.'

"I can't do it, I don't like seeing you like this." Zuko told her.

"This is your fault, if you hadn't been so insistent that you were right then we wouldn't be here now." Her heart literally stopped as his lips lightly touched her; she turned her head to the side. And then it hit her, "You son of a bitch." Katara said wide-eyed. "You set me up! All so you could be alone with me?" Katara asked simply.

"Well we still did have to gather the wood, but to answer you question, yes." It was Katara's turn to kiss the guy who put himself in harms way for her only for a second before realizing: "I could have killed you!" She was shocked he would do this for her, if only for one kiss and then rejection.

"I thought you were angry with me?" He smirked triumphantly.

"Was it worth all that drama and danger?" Katara hadn't thought an answer to such a question would become so important to her. At this he kissed her neck lightly, then returned to her lips. And both found themselves loving the way each other kissed, wanting it to last longer and longer each time, they way their tongues danced with one another. The single breath on the neck when one would pause for air. Which Zuko did momentarily to answer her question.

"Your evaluation is still in progress." Zuko smiled at her.

"Really?" Sarcasm dripped like the girl's native element from the word. Knowing full well the extent of her performance.

"You're doing quite well." Her arms sprang to life and took hugged his chest she put her head against his shoulder. Both their legs gave out slowly as they sank down to a sitting position with their legs sprawled out in front of them. "You threw all the kindling at me?" Zuko asked as he looked around for the apparently now non-existent pile.

"I was mad at you, can you blame me?" She asked innocently.

"Well…since you put it like that…" He paused for a moment. "Yes I think I can." Katara just punched him childishly in the arm.

"I'm more concerned what we're going to say to my brother."

"Yeah… any ideas?"

"Not one." Katara slumped, feeling defeated.

"Damn, maybe if we gather wood it'll get our brains moving?" Zuko suggested. "Cause the brain is like a wood stove."

(nom nom nom that wood, you damn stove!)

Katara raised an eyebrow at the statement.

"Worth a try?" Zuko asked.

"Definitely." They rose quickly, and disappeared into the thick of the trees. Hopeful to find some more wood and that no one might come looking for an explanation for the next hour.


End file.
